One of our highest priorities at Duke Eye Center is to foster the education of the next generation of clinician-scientists. In order to help achieve this goal, a Clinical/Research track, which essentially adds a year of research training to the traditional clinical training, is available for each subspecialty fellowship. Therefore, two separate fellowship options are available for each subspecialty:

Track I: Clinical - one year (2 years for Retina): Track I is for the clinical fellow. Fellows are given the opportunity to see patients in their own clinic, as well as participate in attending faculty clinics. The fellow is an active part of the surgical team as well. Ample experience is available on a wide range of clinical entities. Clinical fellows are also involved in the training program by helping with clinical and surgical supervision of residents.

Track II: Clinical/Research - two years (3 years for Retina): Track II is for the fellow desiring a more serious academic experience. One year (2 years for Retina) is devoted predominantly to clinical training (same as Track I), while an additional year is devoted primarily (approximately 80 percent) to research. Research projects may include clinically oriented basic science research, translational research, or clinical research under the supervision of a basic science and/or clinical faculty member(s). Multi-disciplinary projects are strongly encouraged as well. During this research year, there will be ample opportunities to interact with members of the Duke Eye Center’s clinical and basic science research faculty, in addition to the basic science and clinical faculty members in other departments of Duke University and its Medical Center. Laboratory facilities, equipment, etc., is made available for our Clinical/Research fellows.

 

Since its inception, the Clinical/Research fellowship track has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from the fellows as well as the faculty. Many of these fellows have been able to complete high-quality research projects that have subsequently been presented at national meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, these fellows have gone on to successfully compete for NIH-funded career development awards (i.e., K08 and K12 grants, etc.) as well as for academic faculty positions at top teaching institutions around the country.